The Girl In The Café

I'm growing increasingly impressed with what is going on in the UK, clearly the epicentre of the Make Poverty History movement. Glenn (my favorite Scotsman, next to my father) has pointed us to this great article from The Herald:

The new script: making poverty history
CAMERON SIMPSON May 27 2005

HE'S moved away from love, actually, and now the focus is on changing the world.

Richard Curtis, Britain's most successful screenwriter, last night took on the role of champion of Africa's poor when his new film, The Girl In The Cafe, had its world premiere at the Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh.

A poignant, 90-minute tale, it is part of the Make Poverty History campaign which aims to convince politicians to cancel Third World debt, double the aid budget and rewrite global trade laws so that developing countries can protect their economies.

Curtis has previously written and/or directed some of Britain's most successful movies, such as Love Actually, Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones's Diary. More to our point, he is the creator of the Click concept (so I would think that makes him the patron saint of this blog).

I'll leave it to you to read the complete article at your leisure (there is additional information on The Girl in the Cafe in this BBC press release) but I'll leave you with a couple of poignant quotes.

First, this, which is reminiscent of our thoughts on The Present Future:

Mr Hunter, who has put £1m into Make Poverty History, said: "It is fantastic the world premiere has come to Scotland. G8 offers a unique moment in history to change the world for the better. "We can either make history by eradicating world poverty or be confined to it as the generation who had the chance to stop 30,000 innocents dying every day and didn't take it. "That's not something I want to explain to my children and I hope the G8 doesn't either."

And then this damning indictment:

Curtis added: "If 50,000 people died in London on Monday, in Rome on Tuesday, Munich on Wednesday, in New York on Thursday and in Paris on Friday, they would find the money and the solution to the problem as they walked from the lift to the breakfast bar, they just would."

It's true, they would. We would.

UPDATE: For our American friends (and satellite-wielding Canadians) Mac points out that The Girl in The Cafe is airing on HBO on June 25.

Comments

[bobbie]

i have heard that when people are under seige many times they blare strange annoying music at them to try to break their spirits.

can we get a hold of a very loud soundsystem to install in scotland in july for the g8 that just keeps making 3 clicks, over and over and over again??

[Mike]

Works for me, Bobbie.

Although, I think, say... 500,000 people actually snapping their fingers might be more effective. Wish I could be there.

[bobbie]

me too - snapping is definately more effective - more personal!